4-6-12
in the jungle. It was 8:02 this Friday when the man called. He wanted the inspector that left a notice on his door the previous day. The notice was regarding an illegal garage conversion and that inspector had this day off. I took down his name, address and phone number and told him that the inspector would call him on Monday.
He didn't like that idea and said that he wanted me to deal with him now, as in right now. I explained that I already had a days worth of work planned and the other inspector does most of the code enforcement work. He shouted, "That's not good enough"......"I called now and I want a resolution now." I told him that I could not drop what I was doing and rush right over just because he wants that. He shouted that I am being sarcastic and as a city employee, I am not allowed to be sarcastic. As the tirade continued, I informed him that I don't work for a city and ended the call.
There he was bellowing the rules of my employment as he, my employer, sees them. What he doesn't know is that my employer knowingly sends a Tiger to herd rabbits.....it's expected that some fur will fly.
The rodent bought the property nine months ago and obviously he isn't a good fit with the neighborhood. It takes a certain level of rancor to spur a neighbor into calling the building dept. and quite often the crux of the matter has nothing to do with a code violation.
When that is the case, I swoop in and the perceived duty is to exact revenge for an unknown, unrelated offense. The complaint may be about a garage conversion and the matter could be anything from a teenage boy leering at a teenage girl to taking up too many parking spaces on the street. Both sides see my involvement for what it is, superior brinkmanship. The unintended consequences can be anything from negligible to catastrophic yet they drop the bomb not knowing if it's a dud or a weapon of mass destruction.